Top tracks
Other Modern Folk albums
Other Celtic albums
Put your hands on the remote! browse music »Tone Without Tension by Rob Huffman
view larger image
fave it Modern Folk | Celtic
15 tracks | 44 minutes
Released May 2006
on Rob Huffman
Click
for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.
listen album 30sec. shuffle buy CD review album promote album
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:08 Brink's Garage lyrics BUY MP3 04:08 Brink's Garage lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:08 Brink's Garage
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:50 Swinging on a Gate / Grab a Root and Growl lyrics BUY MP3 03:50 Swinging on a Gate / Grab a Root and Growl lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:50 Swinging on a Gate / Grab a Root and Growl
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:55 Bad Beyond Belief lyrics BUY MP3 02:55 Bad Beyond Belief lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:55 Bad Beyond Belief
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:16 Little Liza Jane lyrics BUY MP3 01:16 Little Liza Jane lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:16 Little Liza Jane
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:49 Memorial Day lyrics BUY MP3 03:49 Memorial Day lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:49 Memorial Day
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:05 Election Night lyrics BUY MP3 01:05 Election Night lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:05 Election Night
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:31 The Cowboy lyrics BUY MP3 03:31 The Cowboy lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:31 The Cowboy
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:40 Ella Faye Waltz lyrics BUY MP3 01:40 Ella Faye Waltz lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:40 Ella Faye Waltz
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:15 Talk About Tomorrow Tomorrow lyrics BUY MP3 04:15 Talk About Tomorrow Tomorrow lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:15 Talk About Tomorrow Tomorrow
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:06 Agenda lyrics BUY MP3 02:06 Agenda lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:06 Agenda
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:14 More Than a Friend (I Need a Friend with a Truck) lyrics BUY MP3 03:14 More Than a Friend (I Need a Friend with a Truck) lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:14 More Than a Friend (I Need a Friend with a Truck)
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:04 When Gilded Things Crack / Elm Bank Holiday / The Nature Trail lyrics BUY MP3 03:04 When Gilded Things Crack / Elm Bank Holiday / The Nature Trail lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:04 When Gilded Things Crack / Elm Bank Holiday / The Nature Trail
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:22 Driver Would You Turn this Bus Around? lyrics BUY MP3 02:22 Driver Would You Turn this Bus Around? lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:22 Driver Would You Turn this Bus Around?
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:19 Mustwee / Vernon Street March lyrics BUY MP3 04:19 Mustwee / Vernon Street March lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:19 Mustwee / Vernon Street March
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:12 High and Mighty Lonesome lyrics FREE 03:12 High and Mighty Lonesome lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:12 High and Mighty Lonesome
New folk songs and tunes influenced by celtic and bluegrass music
Bio / Background
As heard on NPR's Car Talk!
On Tone without Tension, musical raconteur Rob Huffman creates a sonic mosaic in which disparate elements become part of a grander and more compelling image.
Both a virtuoso instrumentalist steeped in Anglo and Irish musics and a wryly honest singer-songwriter in the Arlo Guthrie/Jim Croce mold, Rob performs original and traditional instrumentals and songs on guitar, Irish flute, and whistle. Rob is accompanied by fine backing musicians such as bluegrass stalwart Bob Dick on bass, Einstein’s Little Homunculus saxophonist Susan Gedutis Lindsay, and percussionist Ken Hickey from Boston rockers O Positive.
Rob’s songs reflect his keen observations of the human comedy. Brink's Garage, for example, tells the riveting story of the infamous 1950 Boston robbery that very nearly became "the perfect crime.
↓ more ↓" Written from the perspective of one of the hapless robbers, it's a moving historical ballad in the tradition of James Keelaghan, Richard Shindell, or Stan Rogers.
The Cowboy gives a complex hall-of-mirrors treatment to America’s fascination with Wild West imagery (as well as Rob's Texas roots), and dramatically incorporates the Irish reel "Green Fields of Rossbeigh." Rob performs this reel with fluid grace on the low D whistle, an instrument used to good effect throughout the album. Two and three-part flute and whistle arrangements on "Ella Faye Waltz" and "Mustwee" recall the best work of Irish bands Planxty and Lunasa.
Throughout the album, Rob's sense of irony is tempered with compassion and leavened with humor. The musical settings themselves are perfect complements to the lyrics (for example, the terrific Western swing treatment of Driver, Would You Turn This Bus Around? and the bouncy good vibes of More Than A Friend (I Need a Friend With A Truck)). One of the album’s highlights is the elegiac Memorial Day, a masterfully simple interweaving of reflection on the past and anticipation of the future (and one of the very few songs composed for the end-of-May holiday).
Th e album alternates instrumental and vocal tracks, often intertwined. For example, Little Liza Jane, an old-timey melody from the Southern Appalachians, is heard first as a background line on Bad Beyond Belief, a hilarious song about being in a garage band, then gets a full and exuberant twin-fiddle treatment on the following track.
Rob Huffman’s ringing voice, articulate lyrics, and artful sense of composition make Tone Without Tension a musical experience that yields new rewards with each listen. It’s true American music — humorous, tender, wise, and joyous — made by a true American musician.
"Not only are his lyrics loads of fun, but his playing is excellent to boot!"
- Metronome Magazine
tt
↑ less ↑




